It’s almost laughable the number of times medical professionals ask us to make the oral gesture of outing our lingual appendage. In just about any other setting than a medical one (save, perhaps a Maori haka) the practice is considered rather impolite, or juvenile at best. The diagnostic window of the tongue is pretty remarkable. Your doctor may be looking for any number of maladies which could be evidenced by coating, discoloration, or swelling of the tongue. A gerontologist may be having a peek at how well a patient’s dentures fit. Our neurologists want to see if we pass the “tongue deviation test,” which tests the hypoglossal nerve and its pathways. RELATED: 8 Things to Try When MS Affects Your Ability to Taste and Smell
Is There a Neurological Test for Tongue Biting?
Of late, I’m wondering if my neurologist might look for some of the evidence that the gerontologists seek. I’ve been chewing on my tongue and my cheeks like they’re a Sunday roast. Sure, write off every symptom or malady to multiple sclerosis (MS), you may say. Still, it came on suddenly, around a time of great fatigue (and fever) and has stopped after about five days. Sounds like an “MS thing” to me … I’m a former chef, and my tongue is an important instrument to me. You can understand my concern with my inability to keep it out of the way of my molars and such. A few times I bit it so hard that it caused pain when simply swallowing. I tried to pay extra attention while I masticated my foods, but the sheared-copper-penny taste of blood followed eye-watering, immediate pain at nearly every meal for a week. But my tongue wasn’t the only victim of the attack. RELATED: Hyperosmia: My MS Makes Smells Smell … a Lot
My Cheeks Got Chewed Up, Too
Almost as if filling the void as I consciously tried to move my tongue away from the crushing teeth, my cheeks seemed to slide into its place. Between the two, the inside of my mouth looked like a teenaged trumpet player’s whose braces had a go and turned embouchure into hamburger. Luckily, mouth wounds seem to heal pretty quickly, and as soon as I stopped chewing myself, my mouth was right as rain within a few days. I searched for information to see if others had experienced such a disorder because of MS. I didn’t find anything much in the way of it, so I thought I’d share my experiences. There are plenty of articles about dysphagia — disorders with swallowing — even I’ve written a piece or two about it. As to chomping on the inside of one’s face, not so much. I’ll have a chat with my neuro team when I next see them, to see how common it is. Surely if MS can affect the way my tongue helps me taste, the way it moves out of the way of my teeth (or doesn’t) may be the fault of MS as well. Wishing you and your family the best of health. Cheers, Trevis
